Huang Xia
Huang Xia is a Chinese-American girl who is next in line to inherit the China Hero Instruments Group (中国英雄工具集团). She also operated as a hero under the alias of Canary, and later, Phoenix. Zhelan Xia, her father and the current CEO of CHIP, has essentially created a thriving economy through a hidden arms race. By discreetly manufacturing tools for the villains, demand for more competitive hero gear shoots up. Rinse and repeat. Thus, inheriting CHIP means having to become responsible for both its current upstanding status and its discreet dealings. Huang discovered these unfortunate truths when she was young, and was threatened into silence. Her fear manifested as pathological lying, which means lying constantly about important things, unimportant things, and just about everything in between. Living a lie for the rest of her life is her biggest fear, thus she became a hero to take her first step towards leading an honest life. History The Origin Story of a Liar Huang Xia was a baby screened and selected by her parents, Zhelan and Shu, for having extraordinary natural health and intelligence while also having a combination of their quirks: Zhelan's low heart rate quirk and Shu's gyroscopic balance quirk. Zhelan hoped that the combination of the quirks would give rise to a child that could excel in any number of tasks that require calm, steady hands--namely, as a surgeon and violinist. Zhelan revealed that he wished his child would have been born a boy, however, Shu's gyroscopic balance quirk could only be passed on through the X chromosome, requiring a child born with both quirks to be born with two X chromosomes Masks: The Next Generation #44. In elementary school, Huang was a bright and energetic child that exceeded her parent's expectations, excelling in academic endeavors and gaining a good grasp of the piano and violin. It seemed that she was spurred on by praise. She often demonstrated her incredible balance to the other children and was shown to climb trees to retrieve lost balls and to climb to the top of the jungle gym, knowing that she could not fall Masks:The Next Generation - Canary: The Origin Story of a Liar. However, she broke her arm rescuing someone who slipped trying to climb after her and was subsequently scolded harshly by her father and warned that people of her stature should "never play hero." The risk just isn't worth the reward. When she was seven-years-old, she heard her father on the phone in the middle of the night. Curious as to why he was so agitated, she followed him into the backyard, where she witnessed him handing the prototype for a new weapon to a notorious villain and demanding they go kill and rid him of a competitor and revealing in that process that he's done this dozens of times before for the sake of CHIP. When Zhelan notices her, he threatens her to never tell anyone about what she found out, suggesting that she would lie to keep her mother safe. Huang takes these words to heart, uncovering her mouth to reveal a smile and that she didn't see or hear anything worth telling. "The Origin Story of a Liar" concludes with a frame of an aged-up Huang Xia smiling with her mouth uncovered in a similar manner during a press conference for CHIP, revealing that she was next in line to inherit the company. Just prior to Masks Starting in middle school, Huang began to take small, secretive steps to denounce her father. She stated that she could never have a diary without her parents trying to find it and consequently, she relies mostly on memory. She has an extensive knowledge of her father's schedule, and she also began noting CHIP headquarter's security weakpoints. It is revealed that she started a separate bank account for her and her mother, though her father later revealed that he had known all along, since he kept a tight grip on his finances. Too scared of going against her father as "Huang," she decided to create the mantle of "Canary." Canary's equipment consists of equipment that Huang took from CHIP's "waste disposal" and tinkered with. On a whim, Huang painted them her favorite color and a color that Zhelan finds hideous--yellow. What If: Yellow Edition In the Personality While she was shown in her origin story to be an energetic and often overconfident child, Huang grew up to be calm, calculating, and insecure. She repeatedly demonstrates that she is academically-gifted and organized, and states that someone like her, who could "never be in the front lines of anything" needed to be this prepared. Because her father is always three steps ahead of his competitors, she strives to be three steps ahead of him. Her preparations to denounce her father began when she entered middle school. Despite all her preparations, due to seeing her father come out on top in every situation repeatedly over the years, she has never had the courage to go against him. Likely due to her interactions with her father, Huang has expressed both a fear and distrust in most adults. She thinks that adults are only kind to others when they want something from them. Despite her distrust, she also feels a backwards need for acceptance from adults, often looking for praise from them and showing resentment when they praise others in her group and not her. Huang shows that she was compulsive lying tendencies. While she is a talented liar that can lie her way through most situations, she sometimes lie for seemingly no reasons at all, especially when she gets nervous or after she gets caught in a lie. It is later revealed that she has a "tell" for when she lies. When she tells a hard truth, she covers her mouth, which some has mistaken as her being untruthful. When she lies, she uncovers her mouth. Later on, she describes that she often feels an "itch" that can only be scratched by lying. She has a radar for when others are lying and has expressed that she has a hypocritical hatred for any lie that is told for any reason other than to survive or to protect. Although she often appears charismatic on camera and in front of adults, she reveals that this is all a front that stemmed from her childhood trauma. As Canary, she stays aloof and distant due to her being one of the few heroes to maintain a secret identity. As Huang, she approaches even personal relationship like a business transaction, writing text messages like emails and bringing gifts to every encounter out of politeness, though she often brings gifts that are not appropriate for her age group, such as aged bottles of wine. It is very rare for Huang to be outwardly angry, though she has shown to become irate at times, such as when the statue of a hero she respects was destroyed by a teammate. In private, she is shown to be exceedingly bitter and her first instinct in handling annoyances is by getting back at them in an often manipulative manner. When she realized how similar she was to her father in that aspect, she decided to make a better effort to talk about her feelings. Due to her upbringing, she is shown to be very spoiled in everyday matters. For example, she is repulsed by pizza and most fast foods and said that she only dines at upper scale restaurants. Trivia * Huang as a Chinese name means yellow, bright, liar, phoenix, irresolute, and panicked. ** As Canary, her color scheme is predominantly yellow. The negative connotations of which are cowardice, deceit, and jealousy. * Huang's hero name '''Canary '''is intended to invoke the idiom of a canary in a coal mine. Miners would carry caged canaries into the mine tunnels with them. If dangerous gases such as carbon monoxide collected in the mine, the gases would kill the canary before killing the miners, thus providing a warning to exit the tunnels. Essentially, a canary in a coal mine is something which warns of the coming of greater danger by a deterioration in its health or welfare.